Just Not Enough Room

[Millet]

Being in Colorado, a cold winter state, I must grow citrus inside a greenhouse.  Inside the greenhouse I presently have a fully grown Bearss lime tree that produces  perhaps 200 or more limes every year. I just don't use anywhere near that many limes. I probably use 10 limes in a years time.  As there is just so much room in a greenhouse, I decided to cut out the lime tree and use that space to plant a Valentine Pummelo in its place. Originally, I thought I would plant an orange, lime, lemon, grapefruit, and a mandarin (the four major citrus varieties).  Valentine pummelo was not available at that time.   The other option is to enlarge the greenhouse from its present 72-feet long to 100 feet long.  But the heating bill is already large enough. After replacing the Bearss lime, there will be planted in the ground a pomegranate, ponkan mandarin, a Saint Teresa lemon, Brown Turkey fig, a Valentine pummelo, a  lychee, a cara cara orange, a dekopon, a marisol clementine and a marsh grapefruit, (plus a ton of other container trees and plants.)  - Millet

[brian]

With a much smaller greenhouse and much smaller trees I am still starting to have the same problem, more limes and lemons than I have use for.  I am now focusing only on varieties that can be eaten out of hand, and when space becomes I problem I will probably get rid of the excess lemon and lime trees.  Right now I have plenty of space for them so it isn't a real concern.  I am going to order a grapefruit and pummelo this spring, and likely a Kishu mandarin and the two remaining kumquat hybrids (Indio, Centennial) that I don't have.  Other than finding a red lime and some of the exotic finger limes that were recommended here, I feel like I pretty much have everything of interest and will just graft clones of my favorites until I run out of space or grow more than I can eat & give away.

[Tropicaliste]

200 limes? Man, the food I would make. What a shame. I would think a botanic garden would take it off your hands. Too bad we weren't neighbors. I would've had lime ricky in my fridge all the time.   

[Waiting]

I wish my citrus was in a greenhouse. Several of that psyllid has
been found around the San Joaquin Valley - it's only a matter of time...

gary

[Axier]

OT.
Millet, I have tried a lot of fig varieties for more than ten years, and I can say that Brown Turkey is one of the worst I have had.
It is productive and fairly hardy, but of poor quality. By the way, it is not just my opinion.
I would try Negronne,  Ronde de Bordeaux or (the king of figs in my opinion) Coll de Dama, these varieties are infinitely better than Brown Turkey.
Besides excellent taste, Ronde de Bordeaux is very productive too, absolutely nothing to envy Brown Turkey.

[Millet]

Axier  thanks for the information.  Not many fig varieties available around here.   Mostly Mission and Brown turkey.  I'll look on the internet for Coll de Dama. I agree with you about Brown Turkey. - Millet

[jackedfruit]

Millet: I would recommend looking into Osborne prolific too, great fig for cooler climates in my opinion.

[Millet]

jackedfruit, thanks for the reference.  Ill also do that. - Millet

[Waiting]

Neither Ronde de Bordeaux nor Coll de Dama are readily available. Violette de Bordeaux (which may or may not be the same as Negronne) is easily found at online nurseries. It's fruit is highly thought of.

gary

[Axier]

(Sorry for the OT)

I know that these fig varieties are not easy to find in USA, but if you search, you can get them. It is worth the effort.
You can contact the "fig guru" and reputed grower Jon Verdick (AKA "Pitangadiego"), he has hundreds of fig varieties.
He sells cuttings, not plants, but fig cuttings are very easy for rooting, and figs grow much more easily than citrus.

My Ronde de Bordeaux:





And here Coll de Dama negra, IMHO, the best fig I have tasted so far, and I have tasted many (picture from my friend J.F. www.galgoni.com):





Both varieties are, when well ripened, like fig jam.

[Millet]

Axier, thanks for the link.  I will contact Jon. - Millet

[bangkok]

Why not graft some limescions on the pomelo tree and only grow that?

I have navel orange grafted onto the pomelotree now, tahiti lime failed but i will try it again soon. Later more citrus will follow when i have scions.

Budding failed for me but just grafting some scions worked fine.

[Pancrazio]

I have the problem of excess of production on my lemon trees too. But they are a couple of old plant grown from my grandpa who died 20 years ago, so they have a sentimental value. But man, when I fill a couple of box of lemon, then i wonder myself: "what i should do with them?" My climate (or maybe is their variety? Or the fact they are grown in pot?) doesn’t allow them to become "sweet" enough to produce a good lemonade either. So either i consume them quickly or they rot. Recently i have had limited success putting them under salt. They do become a nice addiction to chicken or cold salads in summer.

[bangkok]

I have the problem of excess of production on my lemon trees too. But they are a couple of old plant grown from my grandpa who died 20 years ago, so they have a sentimental value. But man, when I fill a couple of box of lemon, then i wonder myself: "what i should do with them?" My climate (or maybe is their variety? Or the fact they are grown in pot?) doesn’t allow them to become "sweet" enough to produce a good lemonade either. So either i consume them quickly or they rot. Recently i have had limited success putting them under salt. They do become a nice addiction to chicken or cold salads in summer.

In Thailand the limes are expensive at the moment, this happens every year dued to a shortage on the markets.

My friends freeze their whole limes to use later. They use the juice for drinks or on fried rice. You can try it, just freeze them whole or only the juice in icecube forms/bags.

[GregBradley]

I used 6 Bearss Limes yesterday for just one Mega Margarita made in a frozen beer glass.

However, with 3 Bearss trees I could see that I would end up with too many so I espaliered one.

[Riverland]

In Thailand the limes are expensive at the moment, this happens every year dued to a shortage on the markets.

My friends freeze their whole limes to use later. They use the juice for drinks or on fried rice. You can try it, just freeze them whole or only the juice in icecube forms/bags.

Perhaps you could help open the export market for us
here. The price this time of the year crashes ($2kg) as there is an oversupply of Tahitian (Persian) limes from NSW hitting the market.

[bangkok]

In Thailand the limes are expensive at the moment, this happens every year dued to a shortage on the markets.

My friends freeze their whole limes to use later. They use the juice for drinks or on fried rice. You can try it, just freeze them whole or only the juice in icecube forms/bags.

Perhaps you could help open the export market for us
here. The price this time of the year crashes ($2kg) as there is an oversupply of Tahitian (Persian) limes from NSW hitting the market.

The Thai protect their market very well. Aussie avocado's still cost a lot here these days, even when the AU$ dropped a lot recently they still cost the same as last year. 3 au$ for 1 avocado in the supermarkets or local markets. Aussie cherry's 32 au$ for a kg.

But i read that people here prefer the local lime above the tahiti or other limes. Also i heard of several Thai who want to start limefarms now because of the high prices, so in a few years we will have an overload of limes i guess.